


Toto

by nirejseki



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:53:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: Barry is on another Earth & finds Len - not a criminal or part of CCPD. He's less guarded (Lewis was founded earlier?) & Barry can see himself falling for Len, but the differences highlights how much he misses his Len, criminal and all, the walls too</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toto

“Seriously, before you go back to your Earth, you’ve really got to tell us more,” Leo said, smiling. _Smiling_. Barry was never going to get used to it.

Captain Cold had a really nice smile when he used it, who knew? 

Leonard “call me Leo” Snart was some sort of electric engineer in this universe – apparently, after his father had died in a heist gone wrong when he was a kid, his mother had remarried and the new one had encouraged his kids to get scholarships, educate themselves out of poverty. Leo worked at STAR Labs with Cisco and Hartley Rathaway in this universe, and none of them was familiar with a “Barry Allen”, but they were all delighted to meet him.

Apparently they’d bonded over science fiction geekery, ridiculous inventions that they actually made, and – let us not forget – _stopping Harrison Wells from blowing up the Particle Accelerator_. 

Leo taught a class at the local university (appropriately titled “Star Trek And How To Build It”) and when Hartley had been kicked out of STAR Labs for voicing his suspicions, he’d gone to Leo with his suspicions. Leo had, in turn, gone up the ladder to the authorities and gotten the entire thing derailed. When Eobard Thawne had gone on a rampage, they’d teamed up with Cisco and Caitlin to stop him and now they continued on with STAR Labs scientific traditions. 

Cisco and Hartley as science bros? Weird, but plausible. But _Captain Cold_?

Except he wasn’t, not really. 

Leo was pleasant and personable, charming with none of the cocky self-assurance that could grate on the nerves. He was handsome and smart and confident, friendly and naturally affectionate, without any prickly shell to have to make your way through. He was happy to help where he could, asking for nothing in return. He certainly didn’t make nasty, cutting little comments that turned out to be hilarious in retrospect. He didn’t make puns at the worst possible opportunity. He didn’t make evil schemes or thank Barry for making him up his game or push Barry just to the breaking point of his patience and abilities.

God, Barry couldn’t wait to go home. 

He was tired of all of this stupid world-jumping nonsense; tired of supervillains that spent all their time hurting people in increasingly vicious ways; tired of always being one step behind of everyone. Cold would be a challenge. Hell, Cold would kick his ass back into gear if he heard half of what Barry was thinking nowadays. Get him to up his game. 

Maybe Cold could bring Lisa. Cisco would like that, and Cold was always just a little softer when she was around, a little more relatable, a little more open. They could team up or something. Cisco would get pissed off and Lisa would tease him happier; he and Cold would bicker and Cold would try to trick him somehow (Barry was totally going to be more precise with his requests this time – he realized a week after the events at Ferris Air that technically he’d only asked Cold to get them to the airport and Cold had done just that. Then when that was done, he’d turned to his own objectives. It was like dealing with the devil: you just had to watch for loopholes.)

Yeah. That sounded right. Leo was nice and all, but Barry was feeling seriously homesick. 

Time to go home.


End file.
